Not all the 1,321 students who voted in this week’s Student Association elections voted for DuJuan Smith, Raoul Gravel or any candidate on the ballot. Some voters chose Mickey Mouse.

According to official SA election figures, five votes for president, two votes for vice president, eight votes for treasurer and two votes for student trustee were invalid.

In the case of the Campus Activities Board, 45 votes for president, 39 votes for vice president of programming, 37 votes for vice president of finance and 39 votes for vice president of administration were invalid.

Out of 1,321 votes, two ballots also were completely invalid or unqualified.

A vote is invalid when the voter writes in an unqualified write-in candidate, said Praveen Anbudaiyan, election commissioner and senior accountancy major. Some voters wrote in cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, he said.

David Rusin, associate professor of mathematics, explained one incorrect entry does not invalidate the whole ballot, just that section. For example, if someone votes for two presidential candidates, that portion of the ballot is invalid, but the rest is valid, he said.

Sometimes voters do not want to choose any of the candidates, but there is not a “none of the above” option, Rusin said. There is a stigma that politicians are all liars and there is not a difference between them, so a write-in like Mickey Mouse is a way of making this point, he said.

According to SA bylaws, an entire ballot is invalid when it is not initialed by a poll worker. It also is invalid if it contains multiple votes for a single position.

Although the election procedure provides for the possibility of a write-in candidate, a write-in candidate must be registered two weeks before the election.

If a voter writes in an unregistered candidate or misspells the name of a registered candidate, the ballot is invalid.

A ballot is also invalid if it is profane. Ballots with a non-person write-in are disqualified, but, the exception is if all other categories are correctly filled out only that part of the ballot is invalid.

For example, if a voter writes in Mickey Mouse and fills the rest of the ballot correctly, only the presidential category is invalid.

If 5 percent of the total ballots is invalid, the entire election are declared invalid. In this case a special election must take place a week after the invalidation.